README.solaris(1)
NAME
README.solaris - Perl version 5 on Solaris systems
DESCRIPTION
This document describes various features of Sun's Solaris operating
system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just perl) is
compiled and/or runs. Some issues relating to the older SunOS 4.x are
also discussed, though they may be out of date.
For the most part, everything should just work.
Starting with Solaris 8, perl5.00503 (or higher) is supplied with the
operating system, so you might not even need to build a newer version
of perl at all. The Sun-supplied version is installed in /usr/perl5
with /usr/bin/perl pointing to /usr/perl5/bin/perl. Do not disturb
that installation unless you really know what you are doing. If you
remove the perl supplied with the OS, there is a good chance you will
render some bits of your system inoperable. If you wish to install a
newer version of perl, install it under a different prefix from
/usr/perl5. Common prefixes to use are /usr/local and /opt/perl.
You may wish to put your version of perl in the PATH of all users by
changing the link /usr/bin/perl. This is OK, as all Perl scripts
shipped with Solaris use /usr/perl5/bin/perl.
Solaris Version Numbers.
For consistency with common usage, perl's Configure script performs
some minor manipulations on the operating system name and version num-
ber as reported by uname. Here's a partial translation table:
Sun: perl's Configure:
uname uname -r Name osname osvers
SunOS 4.1.3 Solaris 1.1 sunos 4.1.3
SunOS 5.6 Solaris 2.6 solaris 2.6
SunOS 5.8 Solaris 8 solaris 2.8
The complete table can be found in the Sun Managers' FAQ
<ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/jdd/sunmanagers/faq> under "9.1) Which
Sun models run which versions of SunOS?".
RESOURCES
There are many, many sources for Solaris information. A few of the
important ones for perl:
Solaris FAQ
The Solaris FAQ is available at <http://www.sci-
ence.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.html>.
The Sun Managers' FAQ is available at
<ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/jdd/sunmanagers/faq>
Precompiled Binaries
Precompiled binaries, links to many sites, and much, much more is
available at <http://www.sunfreeware.com/>.
Solaris Documentation
All Solaris documentation is available on-line at
<http://docs.sun.com/>.
SETTING UP
File Extraction Problems on Solaris.
Be sure to use a tar program compiled under Solaris (not SunOS 4.x) to
extract the perl-5.x.x.tar.gz file. Do not use GNU tar compiled for
SunOS4 on Solaris. (GNU tar compiled for Solaris should be fine.)
When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris, the run-time system magically
alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# so that when tar tries to cre-
ate lib/locale.pm, a file named lib/oldlocale.pm gets created instead.
If you found this advice too late and used a SunOS4-compiled tar any-
way, you must find the incorrectly renamed file and move it back to
lib/locale.pm.
Compiler and Related Tools on Solaris.
You must use an ANSI C compiler to build perl. Perl can be compiled
with either Sun's add-on C compiler or with gcc. The C compiler that
shipped with SunOS4 will not do.
Include /usr/ccs/bin/ in your PATH.
Several tools needed to build perl are located in /usr/ccs/bin/: ar,
as, ld, and make. Make sure that /usr/ccs/bin/ is in your PATH.
You need to make sure the following packages are installed (this info
is extracted from the Solaris FAQ):
for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as): SUNWbtool, SUN-
Wsprot, SUNWtoo
for libraries & headers: SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms, SUN-
Wdfbh, SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc
for 64 bit development: SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux, SUN-
Wsprox, SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx
If you are in doubt which package contains a file you are missing, try
to find an installation that has that file. Then do a
grep /my/missing/file /var/sadm/install/contents
This will display a line like this:
/usr/include/sys/errno.h f none 0644 root bin 7471 37605 956241356 SUN-
Whea
The last item listed (SUNWhea in this example) is the package you need.
Avoid /usr/ucb/cc.
You don't need to have /usr/ucb/ in your PATH to build perl. If you
want /usr/ucb/ in your PATH anyway, make sure that /usr/ucb/ is NOT in
your PATH before the directory containing the right C compiler.
Sun's C Compiler
If you use Sun's C compiler, make sure the correct directory (usually
/opt/SUNWspro/bin/) is in your PATH (before /usr/ucb/).
GCC
If you use gcc, make sure your installation is recent and complete. As
a point of reference, perl-5.6.0 built fine with gcc-2.8.1 on both
Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8. You should Configure perl with
sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
If you have updated your Solaris version, you may also have to update
your GCC. For example, if you are running Solaris 2.6 and your gcc is
installed under /usr/local, check in /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib and make
sure you have the appropriate directory, sparc-sun-solaris2.6/ or
i386-pc-solaris2.6/. If gcc's directory is for a different version of
Solaris than you are running, then you will need to rebuild gcc for
your new version of Solaris.
You can get a precompiled version of gcc from <http://www.sunfree-
ware.com/>. Make sure you pick up the package for your Solaris release.
GNU as and GNU ld
The following information applies to gcc version 2. Volunteers to
update it as appropropriate for gcc version 3 would be appreciated.
The versions of as and ld supplied with Solaris work fine for building
perl. There is normally no need to install the GNU versions to compile
perl.
If you decide to ignore this advice and use the GNU versions anyway,
then be sure that they are relatively recent. Versions newer than 2.7
are apparently new enough. Older versions may have trouble with
dynamic loading.
If you wish to use GNU ld, then you need to pass it the -Wl,-E flag.
The hints/solaris_2.sh file tries to do this automatically by executing
the following commands:
ccdlflags="$ccdlflags -Wl,-E"
lddlflags="$lddlflags -Wl,-E -G"
However, over the years, changes in gcc, GNU ld, and Solaris ld have
made it difficult to automatically detect which ld ultimately gets
called. You may have to manually edit config.sh and add the -Wl,-E
flags yourself, or else run Configure interactively and add the flags
at the appropriate prompts.
If your gcc is configured to use GNU as and ld but you want to use the
Solaris ones instead to build perl, then you'll need to add
-B/usr/ccs/bin/ to the gcc command line. One convenient way to do that
is with
sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
Note that the trailing slash is required. This will result in some
harmless warnings as Configure is run:
gcc: file path prefix `/usr/ccs/bin/' never used
These messages may safely be ignored. (Note that for a SunOS4 system,
you must use -B/bin/ instead.)
Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable to
ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult your gcc documentation
for further information on the -B option and the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX vari-
able.
GNU make
Sun's make works fine for building perl. If you wish to use GNU make
anyway, be sure that the set-group-id bit is not set. If it is, then
arrange your PATH so that /usr/ccs/bin/make is before GNU make or else
have the system administrator disable the set-group-id bit on GNU make.
Avoid libucb.
Solaris provides some BSD-compatibility functions in
/usr/ucblib/libucb.a. Perl will not build and run correctly if linked
against -lucb since it contains routines that are incompatible with the
standard Solaris libc. Normally this is not a problem since the
solaris hints file prevents Configure from even looking in /usr/ucblib
for libraries, and also explicitly omits -lucb.
Environment for Compiling Perl on Solaris
PATH
Make sure your PATH includes the compiler (/opt/SUNWspro/bin/ if you're
using Sun's compiler) as well as /usr/ccs/bin/ to pick up the other
development tools (such as make, ar, as, and ld). Make sure your path
either doesn't include /usr/ucb or that it includes it after the com-
piler and compiler tools and other standard Solaris directories. You
definitely don't want /usr/ucb/cc.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If you have the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, be sure that
it does NOT include /lib or /usr/lib. If you will be building exten-
sions that call third-party shared libraries (e.g. Berkeley DB) then
make sure that your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes the
directory with that library (e.g. /usr/local/lib).
If you get an error message
dlopen: stub interception failed
it is probably because your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
includes a directory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file
libdl.so.1.0 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub
interception failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
"/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementations of those
functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
RUN CONFIGURE.
See the INSTALL file for general information regarding Configure. Only
Solaris-specific issues are discussed here. Usually, the defaults
should be fine.
64-bit Issues with Perl on Solaris.
See the INSTALL file for general information regarding 64-bit compiles.
In general, the defaults should be fine for most people.
By default, perl-5.6.0 (or later) is compiled as a 32-bit application
with largefile and long-long support.
General 32-bit vs. 64-bit issues.
Solaris 7 and above will run in either 32 bit or 64 bit mode on SPARC
CPUs, via a reboot. You can build 64 bit apps whilst running 32 bit
mode and vice-versa. 32 bit apps will run under Solaris running in
either 32 or 64 bit mode. 64 bit apps require Solaris to be running 64
bit mode.
Existing 32 bit apps are properly known as LP32, i.e. Longs and Point-
ers are 32 bit. 64-bit apps are more properly known as LP64. The dis-
criminating feature of a LP64 bit app is its ability to utilise a
64-bit address space. It is perfectly possible to have a LP32 bit app
that supports both 64-bit integers (long long) and largefiles (> 2GB),
and this is the default for perl-5.6.0.
For a more complete explanation of 64-bit issues, see the Solaris
64-bit Developer's Guide at
<http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.45.13/SOL64TRANS/>
You can detect the OS mode using "isainfo -v", e.g.
fubar$ isainfo -v # Ultra 30 in 64 bit mode
64-bit sparcv9 applications
32-bit sparc applications
By default, perl will be compiled as a 32-bit application. Unless you
want to allocate more than ~ 4GB of memory inside Perl, you probably
don't need Perl to be a 64-bit app.
Large File Support
For Solaris 2.6 and onwards, there are two different ways for 32-bit
applications to manipulate large files (files whose size is > 2GByte).
(A 64-bit application automatically has largefile support built in by
default.)
First is the "transitional compilation environment", described in
lfcompile64(5). According to the man page,
The transitional compilation environment exports all the
explicit 64-bit functions (xxx64()) and types in addition to
all the regular functions (xxx()) and types. Both xxx() and
xxx64() functions are available to the program source. A
32-bit application must use the xxx64() functions in order
to access large files. See the lf64(5) manual page for a
complete listing of the 64-bit transitional interfaces.
The transitional compilation environment is obtained with the following
compiler and linker flags:
getconf LFS64_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
getconf LFS64_LDFLAG # nothing special needed
getconf LFS64_LIBS # nothing special needed
Second is the "large file compilation environment", described in lfcom-
pile(5). According to the man page,
Each interface named xxx() that needs to access 64-bit entities
to access large files maps to a xxx64() call in the
resulting binary. All relevant data types are defined to be
of correct size (for example, off_t has a typedef definition
for a 64-bit entity).
An application compiled in this environment is able to use
the xxx() source interfaces to access both large and small
files, rather than having to explicitly utilize the transitional
xxx64() interface calls to access large files.
Two exceptions are fseek() and ftell(). 32-bit applications should use
fseeko(3C) and ftello(3C). These will get automatically mapped to
fseeko64() and ftello64().
The large file compilation environment is obtained with
getconf LFS_CFLAGS -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
getconf LFS_LDFLAGS # nothing special needed
getconf LFS_LIBS # nothing special needed
By default, perl uses the large file compilation environment and relies
on Solaris to do the underlying mapping of interfaces.
Building an LP64 Perl
To compile a 64-bit application on an UltraSparc with a recent Sun Com-
piler, you need to use the flag "-xarch=v9". getconf(1) will tell you
this, e.g.
fubar$ getconf -a | grep v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LP64_OFF64_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_CFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LDFLAGS: -xarch=v9
_XBS5_LPBIG_OFFBIG_LINTFLAGS: -xarch=v9
This flag is supported in Sun WorkShop Compilers 5.0 and onwards (now
marketed under the name Forte) when used on Solaris 7 or later on
UltraSparc systems.
If you are using gcc, you would need to use -mcpu=v9 -m64 instead.
This option is not yet supported as of gcc 2.95.2; from install/SPE-
CIFIC in that release:
GCC version 2.95 is not able to compile code correctly for sparc64 tar-
gets. Users of the Linux kernel, at least, can use the sparc32 program
to start up a new shell invocation with an environment that causes con-
figure to recognize (via uname -a) the system as sparc-*-* instead.
All this should be handled automatically by the hints file, if
requested.
Long Doubles.
As of 5.6.0, long doubles are not working.
Threads in Perl on Solaris.
It is possible to build a threaded version of perl on Solaris. The
entire perl thread implementation is still experimental, however, so
beware. Perl uses the sched_yield(3RT) function. In versions of
Solaris up to 2.6, that function is in -lposix4. Starting with Solaris
7, it is in -lrt. The hints file should handle adding this automati-
cally.
Malloc Issues with Perl on Solaris.
Starting from Perl 5.7.1 Perl uses the Solaris malloc, since the perl
malloc breaks when dealing with more than 2GB of memory, and the
Solaris malloc also seems to be faster.
If you for some reason (such as binary backward compatibility) really
need to use perl's malloc, you can rebuild Perl from the sources and
Configure the build with
sh Configure -Dusemymalloc
You should not use perl's malloc if you are building with gcc. There
are reports of core dumps, especially in the PDL module. The problem
appears to go away under -DDEBUGGING, so it has been difficult to track
down. Sun's compiler appears to be okay with or without perl's malloc.
[XXX further investigation is needed here.]
MAKE PROBLEMS.
Dynamic Loading Problems With GNU as and GNU ld
If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, see the section "GNU
as and GNU ld" above.
ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
"GNU as and GNU ld".
dlopen: stub interception failed
The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message
is that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a direc-
tory which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib). See
"LD_LIBRARY_PATH" above.
#error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6
with a gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris
header files changed, so you need to update your gcc installation.
You can either rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the
opportunity to update your gcc installation.
sh: ar: not found
This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command.
This is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the
/usr/ccs/bin/ directory.
MAKE TEST
op/stat.t test 4 in Solaris
op/stat.t test 4 may fail if you are on a tmpfs of some sort. Building
in /tmp sometimes shows this behavior. The test suite detects if you
are building in /tmp, but it may not be able to catch all tmpfs situa-
tions.
nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent
See "nss_delete core dump from op/pwent or op/grent" in perlhpux.
PREBUILT BINARIES OF PERL FOR SOLARIS.
You can pick up prebuilt binaries for Solaris from <http://www.sunfree-
ware.com/>, ActiveState <http://www.activestate.com/>, and
<http://www.perl.com/> under the Binaries list at the top of the page.
There are probably other sources as well. Please note that these sites
are under the control of their respective owners, not the perl develop-
ers.
RUNTIME ISSUES FOR PERL ON SOLARIS.
Limits on Numbers of Open Files on Solaris.
The stdio(3C) manpage notes that only 255 files may be opened using
fopen(), and only file descriptors 0 through 255 can be used in a
stream. Since perl calls open() and then fdopen(3C) with the resulting
file descriptor, perl is limited to 255 simultaneous open files.
SOLARIS-SPECIFIC MODULES.
See the modules under the Solaris:: namespace on CPAN,
<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Solaris/>.
SOLARIS-SPECIFIC PROBLEMS WITH MODULES.
Proc::ProcessTable on Solaris
Proc::ProcessTable does not compile on Solaris with perl5.6.0 and
higher if you have LARGEFILES defined. Since largefile support is the
default in 5.6.0 and later, you have to take special steps to use this
module.
The problem is that various structures visible via procfs use off_t,
and if you compile with largefile support these change from 32 bits to
64 bits. Thus what you get back from procfs doesn't match up with the
structures in perl, resulting in garbage. See proc(4) for further dis-
cussion.
A fix for Proc::ProcessTable is to edit Makefile to explicitly remove
the largefile flags from the ones MakeMaker picks up from Config.pm.
This will result in Proc::ProcessTable being built under the correct
environment. Everything should then be OK as long as Proc::Pro-
cessTable doesn't try to share off_t's with the rest of perl, or if it
does they should be explicitly specified as off64_t.
BSD::Resource on Solaris
BSD::Resource versions earlier than 1.09 do not compile on Solaris with
perl 5.6.0 and higher, for the same reasons as Proc::ProcessTable.
BSD::Resource versions starting from 1.09 have a workaround for the
problem.
Net::SSLeay on Solaris
Net::SSLeay requires a /dev/urandom to be present. This device is not
part of Solaris. You can either get the package SUNWski (packaged with
several Sun software products, for example the Sun WebServer, which is
part of the Solaris Server Intranet Extension, or the Sun Directory
Services, part of Solaris for ISPs) or download the ANDIrand package
from <http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~andi/>. If you use SUNWski, make a
symbolic link /dev/urandom pointing to /dev/random.
It may be possible to use the Entropy Gathering Daemon (written in
Perl!), available from <http://www.lothar.com/tech/crypto/>.
AUTHOR
The original was written by Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu draw-
ing heavily on advice from Alan Burlison, Nick Ing-Simmons, Tim Bunce,
and many other Solaris users over the years.
Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to perlbug@perl.org.
LAST MODIFIED
$Id: README.solaris,v 1.4 2000/11/11 20:29:58 doughera Exp $
perl v5.8.0 2002-06-08 PERLSOLARIS(1)
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